Tuesday, December 3, 2013

FROM A TOWN KNOWN AS OYSTER BAY, LONG ISLAND: Billy Joel, no stranger to these pages even though one co-blogger doesn't particularly care for him, has signed a deal to play Madison Square Garden once a month in perpetuity, as long as there's demand.  (He's also doing a New Year's Eve concert at the arena in Brooklyn with the Ben Folds Five.)

11 comments:

  1. Genevieve3:16 PM

    So if he's going to do this once a month until there's no longer demand, and we buy tickets to a show for some time in 2014, is there a chance of it not happening b/c of not enough demand? (I've got three generations who would go to one of these concerts, but we'd have to make the timing work to go to New York.)

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  2. Watts4:24 PM

    I've seen Billy Joel in concert several times (2 or 3 times with Elton John) and Ben Folds is on my very short list of artists I've never seen live but really, really want to. Damn, I wish I was in Brooklyn for New Year's Eve.

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  3. Adam B.4:52 PM

    I assume that they will announce based on perceived demand, so you're safe.

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  4. I've seen Folds in Pittsburgh — he's great and you should go see him when he comes around. He picks great openers!

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  5. I've seen Billy Joel five or six times (which may overstate my fandom). What's most interesting to me is how the shows differ based on whether he's in a sober or, er, less sober phase of his life. Musically, the sober shows are far better, but the non-sober shows can be fun in a train-wreck kind of way. I saw one New Year's Eve show at MSG during a not-sober phase. During Only the Good Die Young, he climbed up on the piano, genuflected, and then tried to jump off it to the stage, except he fell over himself and would up kind of stumbling/falling to the ground. It was kind of embarrassing for everyone.

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  6. Karen Peters11:14 PM

    I'm with you - that would be such fun!

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  7. Jason Carlin1:42 AM

    "I Wish I Was in Brooklyn for New Year's Eve" sounds like a Billy Joel song waiting to be written.

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  8. Genevieve7:14 AM

    Hmm - I've seen him probably three times, but not since my early 20s, and I didn't pick up on that at the time. Now I'm wondering which it was when I saw him.

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  9. I'm actually kind of shocked that the slot palace/casino out by JFK didn't try and set him up as a long-term headliner.

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  10. I've seen Billy Joel a couple of times, including the tour with Elton in 1994, and he was great. But Ben Folds is probably my favorite live performer of all time. I saw probably 4-5 amazing shows of his in small venues (TLA, Electric Factory) when I lived in Philly, and then again with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, after I moved to D.C., which was also quite good. I'm sure the Brooklyn concert will be a great time.

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  11. Benner6:06 PM

    what, like King Ralph?

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